1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fabrication of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), and more particularly, to MOSFETs that achieve improved carrier mobility through the incorporation of strained silicon.
2. Related Technology
MOSFETs are a common component of integrated circuits (ICs). FIG. 1 shows a conventional MOSFET device. The MOSFET is fabricated on a semiconductor substrate 10 within an active area bounded by shallow trench isolations 12 that electrically isolate the active area of the MOSFET from other IC components fabricated on the substrate 10.
The MOSFET is comprised of a gate electrode 14 that is separated from a channel region 16 in the substrate 10 by a thin first gate insulator 18 such as silicon oxide or oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO). To minimize the resistance of the gate 14, the gate 14 is typically formed of a doped semiconductor material such as polysilicon.
The source and drain of the MOSFET are provided as deep source and drain regions 20 formed on opposing sides of the gate 14. Source and drain suicides 22 are formed on the source and drain regions 20 and are comprised of a compound comprising the substrate semiconductor material and a metal such as cobalt (Co) or nickel (Ni) to reduce contact resistance to the source and drain regions 20. The source and drain regions 20 are formed deeply enough to extend beyond the depth to which the source and drain silicides 22 are formed. The source and drain regions 20 are implanted subsequent to the formation of a spacer 30 around the gate 14 and gate insulator 18 which serves as an implantation mask to define the lateral position of the source and drain regions 20 relative to the channel region 18 beneath the gate.
The gate 14 likewise has a silicide 24 formed on its upper surface. The gate structure comprising a polysilicon material and an overlying silicide is sometimes referred to as a polycide gate.
The source and drain of the MOSFET further comprise shallow source and drain extensions 26. As dimensions of the MOSFET are reduced, short channel effects resulting from the small distance between the source and drain cause degradation of MOSFET performance. The use of shallow source and drain extensions 26 rather than deep source and drain regions near the ends of the channel 18 helps to reduce short channel effects. The shallow source and drain extensions are implanted prior to the formation of the spacer 30, and the gate 14 acts as an implantation mask to define the lateral position of the shallow source and drain extensions 26 relative to the channel region 18. Diffusion during subsequent annealing causes the source and drain extensions 26 to extend slightly beneath the gate 14.
Implanted adjacent to the shallow source and drain extensions 26 are so-called “halo” regions 28. The combination of shallow source/drain extensions and halo regions is sometimes referred to as double-implanted shallow source and drain extensions. The halo regions 28 are implanted with a dopant that is opposite in conductivity type to the dopant of the source and drain extensions 26. For example, when the source and drain extensions are implanted with an n-type dopant such as arsenic (As) or phosphorous (P), the halo regions are implanted with a p-type dopant such as boron (B). The halo regions 28 help to suppress a short channel effect known as punchthrough, which occurs when the channel length of the device is sufficiently short to allow the depletion regions at the ends of the source and drain extensions to overlap, thus effectively merging the two depletion regions. Any increase in reverse-bias drain voltage beyond that required to establish punchthrough lowers the potential energy barrier for majority carriers in the source, resulting in a punchthrough current between the source and drain that must be suppressed for proper device operation. The presence of the halo regions 28 shortens the depletion regions at the ends of the source and drain extensions 26 and thus allows the fabrication of MOSFETs having shorter channel regions while avoiding punchthrough. The halo regions 28 may be formed by low energy implantation of dopant at an angle to the substrate so as to ensure that the halo regions extend beyond the ends of the source and drain extensions 26.
One recent area of investigation for improvement of the conventional MOSFET is the incorporation of “strained” silicon in the semiconductor substrate. Strained silicon is a form of silicon in which a tensile strain is applied to the silicon lattice as a result of the difference in the dimensionalities of the silicon lattice and the lattice of the underlying material on which it is formed. In the illustrated case, the silicon germanium lattice is more widely spaced than a pure silicon lattice, with the spacing becoming wider as the percentage of germanium increases. Because the silicon lattice aligns with the larger silicon germanium lattice during formation, a tensile strain is imparted to the silicon layer. In essence, the silicon atoms are pulled apart from one another. Relaxed silicon has a conductive band that contains six equal valence bands. The application of tensile strain to the silicon causes four of the six valence bands to increase in energy and two of the valence bands to decrease in energy. As a result of quantum effects, electrons effectively weigh 30 percent less when passing through the lower energy bands. Thus the lower energy bands offer less resistance to electron flow. In addition, electrons meet with less vibrational energy from the nucleus of the silicon atom, which causes them to scatter at a rate of 500 to 1000 times less than in relaxed silicon. Consequently, carrier mobility is dramatically increased in strained silicon compared to relaxed silicon, providing a potential increase in mobility of 80% or more for electrons and 20% or more for holes. The increase in mobility has been found to persist for current fields up to 1.5 megavolts/centimeter. These factors are believed to enable a device speed increase of 35% without further reduction of device size, or a 25% reduction in power consumption without a reduction in performance.
FIG. 2 shows an example of an N-type MOSFET (NMOS) incorporating strained silicon and formed in accordance with the conventional processing used to form the MOSFET of FIG. 1. The MOSFET of FIG. 2 differs from the MOSFET of FIG. 1 in that it is formed on a silicon germanium semiconductor substrate 32 over which is formed an epitaxial layer of strained silicon 34. The upper portions of the channel region 18 and the source and drain extensions 26 are formed in the strained silicon layer 34. The thickness of the strained silicon layer 34 is less than the depth of the shallow source and drain extensions 26.
The arsenic (As) dopant of the NMOS shallow source and drain extensions 26 and source and drain regions 20 diffuses at a greater rate in silicon germanium than in silicon, and as a result, during processing such as rapid thermal annealing (RTA) to activate the implanted dopants, the expansion of the shallow source and drain extensions 26 and the source and drain regions 20 is greater in the silicon germanium substrate 32 than in the strained silicon layer 34. As a result, the shallow source and drain extensions 26 develop distorted outgrowths 36 that effectively shorten the channel length in the silicon germanium layer 32 and can cause greater risk of punchthrough and other short channel effects.
Therefore the n-type strained silicon MOSFET formed in accordance with the conventional processing used to form an NMOS on a relaxed silicon substrate suffers from degraded short channel effect resistance compared to the conventional MOSFET.